Apple-Maker Wistron To Wind Down India Business After Tata Electronics Takeover: Report
iPhone manufacturer and Taiwanese electronics company Wistron will shut down and withdraw business from India after 15 years.
iPhone manufacturer and Taiwanese electronics company Wistron will shut down and withdraw business from India after 15 years, says a report by Hindu BusinessLine. However, Wistron's only operations in India that are likely to remain are services businesses for repair and maintenance of Apple products.
The Taiwanese firm is likely to approach the National Company Law Tribunal and the Registrar of Companies to dissolve its operations in India within the next year, the report added, citing sources.
The key iPhone assembler will wind up operations in India after Tata Electronics takes over operations of the Karnataka factory and starts manufacturing new Apple products.
Wistron’s first India subsidiary was incorporated in 2008 in India as a sales and maintenance service centre, “ICT Service Management Solutions (India) Private Limited,” says the company’s annual report.
To recall, earlier in January, news agency Bloomberg reported that Tata Group is close to taking over a major plant in India. This could be a deal that would give India its first homegrown iPhone maker. The report added that the Indian conglomerate intends complete a due diligence process by March 31 so that its Tata Electronics arm can formally take over Wistron’s position in a programme that gives it government incentives.
Currently, Apple iPhone models are assembled by Taiwanese manufacturing giants Foxconn Technology Group and Wistron.
Recently, Apple also started a new love story with India by opening two official Apple Stores in the country -- one in the financial capital Mumbai, followed by another in the national capital Delhi, almost twenty years after Asia got its first Apple Store. The tech giant has been trying to reduce manufacturing dependence on China and move to India since its biggest contract manufacturer and partner Foxconn witnessed unrest in China at the Zhengzhou manufacturing plant last year.
Foxconn in China witnessed major supply-chain disruptions late last year due to the country's zero-Covid policy.